A Reorganization

During the latter launches of the Saturn I program, contractors
began to assume responsibility for mission operations - responsibility
that civil servants had previously exercised. The transition,
completed during the Saturn IB launches, proved a difficult one
for many government employees. Many did not want to manage other
men, preferring instead to apply their engineering skills directly
to the hardware. Veterans of the Debus team recall the change
in their status as one of the significant events in the Apollo
launch program. Aside from the personal impact, the molding together
of the various contractor teams under government management ranks
as one of the great accomplishments at KSC.

The problems brought on by the changing role of contractor and
civil servant gave impetus to a center reorganization in early
1966. On 17 January Debus told his senior staff that the Office
of Manned Space Flight, while voicing the highest praise for KSC's
launch operations to date, was concerned about its readiness to
handle the upcoming Apollo-Saturn launch preparations. The ensuing
study of the management structure was conducted by a KSC task
force headed by Deputy Director Albert Siepert, assisted by John
Young from NASA Headquarters. General Medaris, former commander
of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, contributed an independent
study for the launch center. The study groups concentrated on
two problem areas that affected Apollo: the need to clarify and
separate the duties of Apollo program management from other center-wide
activities, and the liaison of the center with its contractors.35

Following the review and evaluation, Debus sent to Headquarters
formal proposals to realign KSC's administrative organization.
A major change involved the creation of two-deputy director posts.
The Deputy Director, Operations, would be responsible for engineering
matters and technical operations. The Deputy Director, Management,
would handle relations with contractors, other government agencies,
and the community, and direct the development of management concepts
and policies. Two new departments were added. Most of KSC's design
functions were centralized under a Director of Design Engineering.
He would be responsible for monitoring and issuing technical directions
to design support contractors, and the Corps of Engineers. The
other new department, Installation Support, would take over housekeeping
services: plant maintenance, supply transportation, documentation
security, safety, and quality surveillance. In both cases, the
new departments concentrated functions that had previously been
scattered among several elements of the launch center.36

Debus proposed an important change in the launch operations organization
to provide strong and clear direction during the performance of
preflight and launch operations. Test management, as a discrete
function, was set up at the top Launch Operations level, with
counterparts at the Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft Operations directorates.
These offices would plan and direct launch operations, with a
specific individual in charge of each mission. The test manager
would be just that - a manager, not merely a
coordinator as had generally been the case in the past.
In this capacity, he would be responsible for the mission hardware
from the time of its arrival at the center to the launch. Engineers
in various operational areas would be assigned to assist the test
manager when required. These specialists, however, would not have
authority to give formal instructions to the contractors performing
the work; they were to provide only informal technical guidance.
Formal instructions could come only from the test manager.

The reorganization altered the civil servant-contractor relationship
in several important ways. The Director of Design Engineering
assumed responsibility for all KSC hardware development contracts,
construction and modification contracts, as well as the design
engineering support contracts. Lines for reporting were streamlined
so that other major contractors reported to a single KSC element.
The changes established a specific chain of command for each launch
and helped the government provide the contractors with formal
direction, informal instruction, and a better evaluation of performance.
Administrator Webb signed the new KSC organizational chart on
27 April and the changes were phased in through the remainder
of the year.37